“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY ARE OURS”: On this day in 1813, American naval commander Oliver Hazard Perry defeated British commander Robert Heriot Barclay (no relation) in the Battle of Lake Erie. His dispatch to Major Gen. William Henry Harrison ranks up there with “Veni, vidi, vici” for succinctly, yet dramatically, reporting a military victory.
(And, yes, there was also Pogo’s variation on Perry’s theme.)